Winners from the 2018 Great Taste Awards have been announced and Ross & Ross Food have received stars for two entries. Great Taste is the most acknowledged benchmark for artisan fine food and drink producers. The judging panel in 2018 was made up of 500 judges, who blind tasted a total of 12,634 products, with 37% of entries accredited with stars.

Firstly, their Spicy BBQ Salt received 2 stars. Made with Anglesea Halen Mon Sea Salt that is blended with Chilli, Roasted Garlic and Charcoal Salts. Used as a seasoning or finishing salt and gives an extra kick and barbecue flavour. The judges comments included; “Flavour was superb - well-balanced, clean and with the ingredients in perfect quantity… Has a wonderful minerality. Looks amazing and tastes so natural… A useful cooks' ingredient for rubs and marinades with a base of good quality sea salt… cleverly crafted to give a wonderful explosion of taste, that would be superb on many different things, particularly white meats or making a butter…”

Xystos will head to Glee (Stand 19M11) at a time when it enjoys strong garden centre sales with ranges from new Australian partner Splosh.The lifestyle brand’s Fairy Houses – battery-operated night lights for a child’s nursery or bedroom – were the surprise hit at Spring Fair and Xystos has gone on to introduce two more designs, Gingerbread House and Santa’s Workshop, which promise to be equally successful for retailers.

There will be a wide variety of pet-themed and sentiment-driven Splosh products on the Xystos stand at Glee, including Signature photo frames and numbers which can be signed as a lasting memento by party guests instead of the traditional guest book.There are also Wish Jars, which enable guests to write their special messages to the receiver and insert them in the jars. Look out too for impulse purchase sentiment plaques and photo frames spanning the spiritual, tribal and botanical. Mugs to Go in bag-style packaging have also been a hit with buyers seeking out gifts for every occasion.

Two new Splosh ranges for animal lovers have been added by Xystos to the Adopt a Doorstop range. The Art of Cats has images of furry friends on mugs, cushions, journals and notebooks, tote bags and sticky notes, while Precious Pets features pictures of different breeds of dogs on mugs and hanging dog signs, as well as photo frames carrying tributes to them.